One of top spymasters shown the door

ISLAMABAD - Continuing with the administrative reshuffle within the top hierarchy, the military command on Thursday showed the door to one of its top spymasters without assigning an immediate posting upon completion of his official term. As per directives issued by Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Major-General Sarfraz Sattar has been appointed director general of Military Intelligence forthwith. He has replaced Major-General Naushad Kayani, who is known to be one of the trusted commanders of the army chief. Sources at General Headquarters said Naushad Kayani's three-year term with MI saw its completion in April this year, after which his replacement was expected. Though not been assigned a new posting with order to report to GHQ, Kayani is expected to get an important command assignment in the coming days. Incoming MI director general Shahid Sattar was elevated to the rank of major-general in March this year along with 28 other brigadiers out of a total of 190, considered for promotions. After promotion Sattar was not assigned any posting for around four months. He was working as Pakistan's defence attache to India at the time of promotion. Prior to Eid last week, army chief Kayani granted promotions to four major-generals on the recommendation of Army Promotion & Selection Board. The newly-promoted lieutenant-generals were Qamar Javed Bajwa, corps commander Rawalpindi; Zamirul Hassan Shah, commander army air defence command; and Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad and Javed Iqbal – two army officers who are yet to get a posting.On Monday, Major-General Amir Riaz was appointed director general of Military Operations replacing Ishfaq Nadeem, while Major-General Shahid Baig Mirza was appointed GOC Lahore in place of Amir Riaz. Before promotion, Zamirul Hassan, in his capacity as a maj-gen, was also the commander at Army Air Defence Command. Qamar Bajwa was the commandant at School of Infantry and Tactics (Quetta) while Javed Iqbal was chief instructor B-division at National Defence University Islamabad. The two slots having fallen vacant following the promotions of the respective generals have not been filled in as yet.In January this year, four major-generals were promoted to the next rank. They were Maqsood Ahmed, Zubair Mahmood Hayat, Syed Wajid Hussain and Najibullah Khan. Presently, Maqsood Ahmed is corps commander Lahore. Zubair Mahmood is corps commander Bhawalpur. Wajid Hussain is chairman Heavy Industries Taxila whereas Najibullah Khan is military's engineer-in-chief. This October, General Khalid Shameem Wyne, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Lt-Gen Alam Khattak corps commander Quetta would retire. General Ashfaq Kayani would be seeing the completion of his extended three-year COAS-ship on November 28. Lt-Gen Khalid Nawaz retired as corps commander Rawalpindi on this month's 13th.

This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 16-Aug-2013 here.